Basically, you say people around you are idiots, and ask us how you could maintain your exceptional status, as the members of this forum all seemingly managed to. Ok, my theory is that there is no brainwashing without a willing participation of the to-be-washed brains.
So simply don't participate where you don't want to be a part of. But do not cry later of missed opportunities. The degree of you-not-participating is completely in your hands. By the way, what is a non-western country in these days ?
Consumerism seems to be in every country except North Korea. I bet the Tibetan monks have smartphones meanwhile.
However, with all tendencies where I myself am enticed (by myself, of course) to complain against the current way of life around me, I am always so thankful at the same time, that this bad bad system that always tries to brainwash me (which I deliberately let it succeed sometimes), allows me to live my life without war, without fear, without poverty (well...at least now), without danger (that comes from other people). That I may survive my first stroke in the future due to the medical advance and dense communication networks and people who dedicate their professional life to help me.
It is all akind of an ecosystem, that allows you to say no with little consequences, because it is so tolerant.
But at some point, the consequences may culminate. Then, there will be for you a real decision to make.

 

Hold fast, Helvetica, unless one is off of the grid it is difficult to avoid being sucked into the paradigm of consumerism (how how I dispise that debasing term), the continuous battering of the news media to buy into their narrative, the weird and dangerous world of what passes itself off as mainstream medicine and in general being a cog in the machine that drives the oddly shaped wheel of perpetual hallucinatory madness. Do your best to maintain your sense of center as you maneover and thread your way towards the choices with which you can live with and don't comprimise your self imposed boundary.Those people that are on a similar path as yours will be going through the same trials as you experience, so mutual support can help find your own way through this challenging reality we find ourselves in.

 

Almost most people adapt themselves to the imposed conditions and try to be noiseless. They think they would earn more money and have less troubles in their lives with this way of thinking but the truth is:

They have just surrendered themselves to the sources of power and wealth and at the end their lives have been plundered and pillaged with empty pockets and despair.

 

The big problem is wherever the're more than one hundred people there's always a power. Everywhere and always since we are humans. And to be honest I don't have the slightest idea of how to improve that, if we're talking about people. I know I couldn't have a big power position without being corrupted or being kicked in the ass by others. Perhaps this is the best we can do.

One thing is surrendering and another to die fighting. There is a limit to how much you can swim against the current.

 

And yall need one a these to stop them Ruskies using the Vulacn Nerve Pinch on ariplanes.

 

In keeping with the predictions made, of 1000 word essays and trolls, I begin.
Hopefully it will fit the "essay" model as opposed to the troll one.

It may seem a weird thing to suggest, but dive a bit into skepticism.
The reason I think it is weird, is that it might seem to only ADD to the frustrations of life realizing more in depth how flawed everything is.
Yet in following that route I found that it reduced my frustrations about ... life ...people...information..everything, really.
After all it is your (our) EMOTIONAL states that we CARE about. Nothing else REALLY matters beyond how it can serve that fundamental thing.
Of course everything influences our emotional states in different ways and to different degrees.
Understanding more can help organize some of that.

It is your emotional reaction to both 1) what you think about the conditions in which you are living and 2) the conditions themselves in how they affect us beyond the reach of our awareness or evaluation.
So, certain steps can be taken to avoid what we guess influences us badly, and we can take steps to avoid ways of THINKING that affect us badly. Avoiding the bad ways of thinking is the harder of the two, because much of the bad ways of thinking are hooked into emotions and the subconscious (or if you don't like that word 'cause Freud) we could just say "beyond much intellectual control".
In my experience, once you have "opened the can of worms" of thinking about how you are living, the only solution is to continue in that path. You can't "unknow" what you have realized ... except by learning more, and perhaps learning that you were wrong.

Skepticism is what comes to mind for me, because it involves critical thinking and the best sort of honesty we can achieve.
If you REALLY are driven to understand what is true and real, defensiveness drops ... there is JOY in finding out you were wrong ... especially when you have drawn unpleasant conclusions. And this influences our emotions at level beyond our awareness, too.
Over time, attitudes shift according to the new understanding and evaluations that occur in the subconscious.
Skepticism can function in a philosophical way, calling everything and every way of thinking into question, but it provides what philosophy CAN and DOES NOT: Answers.

Skepticism saved me from cynicism by clearing up many misconceptions I had. I was not wrong in many things ..
I might say that I was right about everything I saw in life. I simply had not seen ENOUGH ... DEEPLY enough.
Gone are most of my frustrations, including a tendency towards blaming and a vigilante urge for justice.
In learning more how flawed in every way both humans are and the natural world from which we come is, I was also learning reasons and ways to forgive all of that ... the logic became inescapable. There really is nothing and no one to blame in that big sense.
No one ever popped out of the womb saying,"I'm going to be an evil mother******."
We all have to live together so people must be held accountable for their actions (and I am pretty strict when it comes to following rules), but to "blame"? I just can't see it ...find it ... I can't pass the big overall judgments on the world or life as I used to.

Skepticism helped me sort out (enough to diminish frustration - and that is the point) many things like:
Who to trust? in what ways? to what degree? I learned that almost everyone is mostly wrong about everything.
That might seem disillusioning, and it is. The illusion is that there is no one or thing to trust.
The reality is that MOST people and MOST things, CAN be trusted ... in certain ways ... to certain degrees.
Learning who , when, to what degree involves time and effort, and the specifics in one way are not as important as the realization that comes with just a little reading, that IT CAN BE DONE. Despite the corruption that hides or the "system" that obscures, there are ways to cut through and make fair judgments about things, even some fairly large and complex things.
Certainly a lot of final judgments must also be withheld, because we do not know or do not yet know enough, but realizing WHY strengthens patience and sharpens focus on the real target.
And the effects of learning ABOUT the method of determining and the process of doing it (following the paper trials, so to speak) CAN involve a lot of reading. Without the internet ... access to the material ABOUT these things and at least some specific cases to convince my cynical self, I don't think i ever would have been able to cause the effect on my FEELINGS that occured. And of course I needed motivation to even start. You already have that obviously..the evidence is that you posted about this subject. Mine was an incident and realization back in 2003.

Learning more about things in general not only provides ways to better judge things, but also realization about our own demands and frustrations, and our overall subconscious conclusions (how we feel).
I was frustrated from demanding what could not be provided. Now I know better what to demand , from what or whom, and to what degree.
In SO MANY ways learning critical thinking within skepticism can have a powerful effect.
It became interesting to me intellectually and I learned a few neat things, but the emotional benefit over time was unexpected.
To me was like a spiritual awakening for the non-religious.

Some of what you are doing now is philosophizing about how you are living and the effects.
If you could just stop the thinking and be engaged with life to a degree that you just "don't have time for" thinking about it, there is no need for any of this. If you have access to activities that will take you away from thinking about the thinking, it is worth trying.

But once you have taken that step ... it can be hard to turn back.
I had one incident that made me realize that i'd passed a "final judgment" on life.
My judgment was not so harsh, and mostly about myself in this world and not so much about others.
But it was pretty cynical, and it affected my personality greatly.
I'd not even realized I'd done it. I thought I was pretty humble, but the brain (the subconscious being the more powerful) WILL HAVE its judgments and conclusions, no matter the intellectual humility.

The incident caused emotions that demanded i resolve the conflict between my view of the world and some evidence against that view that I could not ignore. In trying to resolve it I began first trying to learn about my own emotions. Why did I feel that way?
That led to the brain and body, which led to everything else and my eyes were opened to all I did not know.
The first year following that (maybe 9 months ... it is somewhat a blur now) I learned, technically, more than i had in my whole life, but more importantly, something happened to my feelings pretty early on in starting to learn again

I'd thought I had a pretty good general knowledge of things, but it really had no depth.
I'd been frustrated by my own limitations in schooling and I think the methods used in US public schools were (are) poor.
I knew just enough to wind up being cynical about everything.

With skepticism I've learned much better which thing DESERVE cynicism and which thing deserve an almost childlike enthusiasm.
I've also learned I can avoid those things deserving cynicism and engage more with those deserving enthusiasm, and that has changed me ... changed how i spend my time, and "time spent doing" is what really changes" who we are ... how we feel.
We are going to be "brainwashed" no matter what we do, but we can have some control over the process.
We can be "brainwashed" with good or bad ideas. It does not have to be arbitrary ... that really means it end up being controlled by the many influences designed or evolved to influence, many of which you have mentioned.
Every moment you spend washing your own brain with what you judge as better, is automatically deducted from what you consider worse.

 

Last edited: Aug 30, 2019

What an interesting question! First time I have ever heard it.

Yes, there is a tsunami of trashy, throw-away, trivial culture. And it is almost impossible to avoid. It's a full-time, lifelong business trying to avoid it.

Just don't believe the hype and pursue what *you* wish to. Pretty simple?

[I don't quite live on a ranch, but I do live in a caravan in a field on a relatively remote Welsh hillside. Happiest place I have ever been.]

Good luck!!!!

 

Magic mushrooms. Thats how you avoid being conditioned. Alternatively meditating helps, but not quite as much

There's always so much melodramatic cringe in these type of threads. Im afraid to even read the responses lol

 

cursed by our own competence and unimportance, that's our problem boys and girls.

 

May I ask why..? I know there are a thousand valid reasons, but there are a million wrong ones...

 

Last edited: Aug 30, 2019

I'm experienced with some of these methods, haven't taken the Amazon trip but if anyone is interested in a less chemically induced alternative I've been seeing a lot of improvement in my overall mental and physical state with hemi-sync and holosync soundwave sessions. I rushed ahead in the holosync program by accident and had a very real psychedelic experience complete with terror and enlightening breakthroughs that was everything a beneficial rollarcoaster ride might entail. All aspects seem covered and continues to help when a mental struggle appeaars. Although I'm a non medical dude I highly recommend

 

jeez... just sush up and accept the conditioning already.

dam wordy verbose just messing up the joint causin troubles


just look at the floati pocket watch as it gnetly sway back and fourth... you are feel sleep... very tyre now...


1000 word essays BAD

trolling BAD

you do not need all that messiness in your LIFE

you must seek the BEAUTY and WONDER of the eternal movement

wade ankle deep into the LUXURIANT shallow puddle

drinking deeply will only make you sick instead seek the austere BEAUTY ORDER and UNIFORMITY of the desert

you KNOW resistance is futile anyway

march along with US to the kettle drum and fife

you are LOVED here

the GLORIOUS sound of 1000 boots marching in concert

the effortless MAJESTY

how could you have so foolishly imagined any other

SIT DOWN relax float like a pocket watch

float like this MAJESTIC infinite flat plane that we live upon flOats in the holographic projection of...


gah! i have said too much... abort

 

well shit. this is relevant to my interests lol. thanks for the tip bro

 

DUDE thats just feminazis and antifas trying to make you ghey with movies and action figures an stuff bro

just blame everything on someone else worked for me bro fo shiz

better yet dont think at all peace

 

All of this

 

dont put your brain in the washingmachine, easy enough.

 

Hey ... I've got the unimportance, but where did you get the competence?
I don't find it on the sister site...

 

@Helvetica

I am sorry to be confused, but I am.

The sentiment you are expressing is a persistent character of the human condition. It seems that there is a built in resistance to pedagogical transition in almost all human beings. Though I can't see how a country like Belgium is brainwashing you into a depression. They are not forcing you to anything outside of not allowing to force other people to do what you want. Perhaps I am not in know as to how life goes in Belgium, so a more detailed argument would be helpful to understand why you are upset. The truth is nobody here knows you or what you are actually talking about and you are using a lot of buzz words but I don't understand what it is you are actually trying to say.

For example ask 12 year old kids how much they love school? We can all empathize since we were all once 12 years old, some of us still are 12 years old, and some of us have yet to reach that level of maturity - school wasn't very fun for most of us except for one or two subjects that might have been dear to us. So the world is changing there are a lot of new ideas, some of which you don't like and nobody will discuss it with you and that is upsetting. Maybe your points have already been addressed.

I am not trolling you but if you want to have deep intellectual exchanges... the most important part is that they at least be honest and well expressed. I can feel that you are upset, but unless you are speaking in a code that I don't understand I don't know what you are upset at besides a long string of social media catch tags that are trending. Intellectualism requires that you respect other people's intelligence, not necessarily their view points or opinions, but at least respect facts that are facts and be yourself.

Be honest and be proud of yourself, not to the point of becoming arrogant but never be ashamed of who and what you are. We might disagree, disagree vehemently and if it ever comes down to it out beliefs might be so different that we will never be able to resolve them except through violence if it becomes necessary that we can no longer just ignore each other. That is OK, just be you, especially on internet where the signal to noise ratio is high if you really want to exchange and argue for your ideas at least have the courage to define them and yourself properly.



Perhaps if you can express yourself a bit better, and if your views are not so extreme as to be dismissed wholesale then you can indulge in that intellectualism because intellectualism is not dead it never has been and never will be because it is also a durable part of the human condition.

 

Check it out bro, but don't thank me. I was schooled by our friend NanaB

Peace and Love to Ya'll

 

Last edited: Aug 30, 2019

One thing is obvious and it's that the wealthy have always been total imbeciles. It's a good point to start. If you take a look at the history, nearly all efficacious and stirring individuals (e.g. in Art) have been from the lower or middle classes and the well-off aristocrats and royal families have only played the role of patrons (just for their own pleasure and in most times have derailed its natural path). It's their only contribution to the development of the art.